This is one of the most frequently asked questions once people become curious about their human design.
The magic of human design is that it works based on your birth date, time and place instead of the quizzes or questionnaires required for personality tests.
How does human design work if I don’t have my exact birth time?
Birth date and place are normally no-brainers.
Your exact birth time can be another matter.
In many countries, this information is located on your long-form birth certificate. If your birth certificate does not show this, you may have an abridged version and can contact the relevant issuing office for further details.
In my case, I was able to phone the local Standesamt (register office) in Germany to get my exact birth time. A friend of mine made the same inquiry in writing. This method also works for many other European countries.
If born in the US, you can contact your birth state’s vital records office.
If born in the UK, your time of birth is not held on your birth certificate or with your local register office. It is, however, recorded on a baby’s hospital band or tag so make sure you keep that sh!t!.
If you cannot find an official record of your birth time, there are further options:
- Ask parents or family members
Sometimes the right birth time comes from the most surprising sources. One of my clients has a hand-drawn card announcing her birth including all the details. Another has a painted plate. It could be in a baby book. Sometimes families have beautifully embroidered wall hangings that include their child’s birth details.
If your family members are uncertain, you can ask about any special memories related to your birth. My co-parent’s mother remembers he was born right before hospital visiting hours. Parents may remember sunrises/sunsets or significant personal or public events that occurred right around your time of birth. This may not be exact but can assist massively in narrowing down the possibilities.
- Check with the hospital
Again, this is country dependent, but you may be able to request a copy of your medical records from the hospital where you were born, or check with the midwife who assisted with your birth.
In the UK, babies born in the last 10-12 years (at time of publishing this blog post in 2023) should have electronic records that can be accessed online via their NHS number.
Thanks but none of that worked. Does this mean I can’t work with human design?
Nope, it doesn’t.
Here are some further avenues to pursue:
- Get a birth time rectification
This is a system based on tracking meaningful events in your life.
A qualified astrologer can use this information to work out a rectified birth time by considering events against planetary positions in astrological houses at different times during your day of birth.
If you already have a trusted astrologer, consider asking them whether they offer this service. If you don’t, contact Devon-based astrologer Lynne Speight at lynnespeight@gmail.com.
- Work with a human design professional
As a human design reader, it is possible to track down significant shifts in a chart on any given day of birth. In most cases, this means looking for when there are changes in either energy type or profile number. Based on this information, your human design reader can ask you questions to ascertain which birth window is most likely.
Most often, this approach lets you work with the foundations of your human design chart such as your energy type, profile and defined / undefined energy centres.
This method is generally not suitable for diving into advanced chart properties such as digestion, environment, perspective or motivation. But remember that understanding your energy type, strategy and authority is the 20% of your human design that creates 80% of the impact! So, you can relax and trust that following your strategy and authority is all you really need to set you up for successfully living in alignment with your unique human design.
➡️ BONUS: If you book a 1:1 human design conversation or family consultation with me, the service of narrowing down your birth time is included free of charge. You can find out more about which offer might suit you here.
